Ceiling Trouble / Bathroom Leak

[Jacob Kurian]

Hello, I am a first time landlord with my first property. My tenant just notified me of this in November and they first started noticing it back in May (eye roll lol). There appears to be a leak but I'm not a very handy guy and am not 100% sure. The images are from the living room ceiling. Right above it is a bathroom. Does anybody have any advice on alternatives to resolve or get this fixed before I go all out & call a plumber. They'd likely charge a premium, which would hurt my numbers on my first property. If anybody has any cheaper, alternative options to try first before resorting to a plumber and killing my CAPEX reserves, it would be greatly appreciated! I've attached some pictures to my post of the issue. Thanks in advance!

[Jonathan Greene]

What you are saying is how people become slumlords over time, unfortunately. There aren't many things that "appear" to be leaks, they usually are leaks and if it's been leaking since May you are going to have way more issues to worry about than a premium plumber charge. If calling a plumber to fix a real leak is going to kill your reserves, this is a bad deal on a property and bad cash flow.

The first thing to learn as a landlord is that everything is your responsibility to cure. If the tenant didn't know to contact you since May, it's because you did not train them on what to call about (water and fire are the first calls on first sight). Being cheap about repairs leaves you with unhappy tenants who will not take good care of the property because you don't.

Send a licensed plumber ASAP.

[Nathan Gesner]

Quote from @Jacob Kurian:

The pictures didn't make it.

Sit down and contemplate what could be happening. What water source is in that area? Is it directly below a bathroom? When you have a minor leak beneath a bathroom, it's most likely from the drain pipes, which is why the water only leaks when someone uses the bathroom. The other option is a water supply line, but that would typically resulting a steady leak and the damage would occur faster.

Really think about what is above that space that could cause the issue. The plumber will likely have to cut open the ceiling to confirm and make repairs, so you can save a little money by learning how to do that yourself, confirm the problem, and then call the plumber for repair, then patch the ceiling yourself.

As Jonathan is trying to point out, it's important to expect these things and have funds on hand to deal with them. If your budget is so tight that you can't handle a small leak, what will happen when a tenant fails to pay the last month of rent and abandons the property with $6,000 in cleaning and repairs?

[Jacob Kurian]

Thanks for the input guys! I have minimal plumbing experience and thought it would cost me way more than what the actual bill was. Luckily the reserves I had in place was way more than needed for this. First time newbie jitters when I faced my first landlord issue!